Crowdfire Founders Plan to Launch Indian Bitcoin Exchange

Cryptocurrencies have grown popular in India, and digital asset markets in the region have seen exponential growth despite uncertainty from the Indian government. Now, this week the founders of the popular application Crowdfire have announced the team is launching an Indian-based bitcoin exchange this March.

Crowdfire Founders Plan to Launch a Cryptocurrency Exchange This March

On the same day the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley of India discussed digital currencies and blockchain the founders of Crowdfire announced they are creating an Indian cryptocurrency exchange this March. The trading platform will be called Wazirx, and it’s being built by Nischal Shetty, Anirudh Khusape, Sameer Mhatre, and Siddharth Menon who developed the well-known Android app that boasts 19Mn users. Shetty says he’s been into cryptocurrencies since 2009 and he tested out mining bitcoins in the early days. This year he said he got “sucked in to the blockchain rabbit hole” and decided to build a cryptocurrency exchange for India.

Shetty says he’s not pleased with the current exchange standards in the country and wants to build a more transparent product. “If the frustrating experience of substandard product wasn’t enough, I was surprised to see how opaque most of the exchanges were in terms of communicating with their users — When dealing with other people’s money, transparency is the best way forward,” explains the Crowdfire founder.

People trust us with their money, we need to provide them with clear information on what’s happening behind the scenes, why something’s not working right, what features we’re building, what fees we charge them, etc. It’s also our responsibility to inform users prior to making changes that affect them.

Despite Government Uncertainty the Crowdfire Co-Founder Says His Team Plans to Be Very Vocal About Blockchain In India

Nischal Shetty founder of the popular Android app Crowdfire.

Wazirx is also creating an ‘exchange-backed token’ called WRX that will be similar to other trading platform tokens that Binance and Cobinhood offer. Every Indian resident will be given a certain amount of WRX for free if they register and verify the identity of their accounts. Shetty details they will buy back the WRX equivalent to “10% of our quarterly profit as and when profitability is achieved.” The exchange launch will begin in March and start by listing ethereum (ETH), bitcoin core (BTC), ripple (XRP), and litecoin (LTC) with more coins to follow, Shetty explains.

Wazirx says it has “top of the line identity verification systems that process KYC within a few hours of signing up” and the firm will have regular security audits. The exchange will also have Android and iOS mobile apps, the website reveals. Even though the country’s central bank and politicians have been leery about cryptocurrencies, Shetty says his team will be very vocal about the technology and believes India will be a crypto-frontrunner.

“Once in a lifetime does a generation get to be part of something that brings about a paradigm shift in the world — While India has been a follower of trends, I believe we can be the frontrunners in the crypto adoption,” Shetty emphasizes.

Expect us to be very vocal about what’s happening in the blockchain space in India.

What do you think about the founders of Crowdfire launching an exchange in India? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

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Jamie Redman

Jamie Redman is a financial tech journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open source code, and decentralized applications. Redman has written thousands of articles for news.Bitcoin.com about the disruptive protocols emerging today.

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